981. Coach Pat Summitt: The ONLY 2 Things You Have Control Over: Defense & Rebounding

In this episode, I share a powerful life lesson inspired by Pat Summitt’s coaching philosophy: there are only two things you truly control—defense and rebounding.

We break down what it means to play defense in life by focusing on positioning, fundamentals, and process instead of desperation and reaction. And we talk about rebounding—how quickly you recover from setbacks, missed shots, and moments that don’t go your way.

This isn’t about hype or motivation. It’s about thinking clearly, staying in position, and being ready when opportunity shows up.

Control what you can control.
 Play defense.
 Rebound fast.

Lets' get it!

Transcript

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All 3, 2, 1. Let's get it this morning, in my random reading I was reading the final season, the perseverance of Pat Summit, written by Maria Cornelius, and very early on when I first started this podcast back in 2017, I, I did a podcast on Coach Pat Summit. Been always a, a, a fan of hers and. So this morning I, I got the book at Goodwill Many, I don't know, probably a year or or so ago, many months ago. And I just pulled it off my shelf this morning and I was gonna read out of, out of it, but I noticed The Forward was written by Candace Parker, and I've always been a fan of Candace Parker. She was a, she was a, a player for Coach Pat Summit and the forward. Was so good. So I wanna read what she wrote and then unpack that. I never got any further than the forward. So here's what she wrote. She said, pat Summit is the strongest person I know. Coach's influence on my life has been instrumental, not only in who I was as a basketball player, but more importantly who I am as a person today. Her life was proof that consistent effort produces results. She lives her own advice. She rebounds from setbacks. She remains humble in success and positively adapts to the inevitability of change and demands the best in herself and others. Bro, I stop right there. I'm like, that's the kind of person I wanna be. To live my own advice, to rebound from setbacks, to remain humble in success and positively adapt to the inevitability of change. Like, why are we always shocked at change? Like when things go well, when things change for us and go, well, we, we don't gripe about that. But also we forget, there's inevitability of change. Things are always, something's, change is always coming. Change is always constant. And so why are we shocked by that? And then lastly, demand to demand the best in myself. Put a demand on that on myself, but also on others. And here's the thing, man, as I was thinking about that this morning. I don't think she had to demand the best in others. I think Coach Summit set that expectation because she had a demand on herself. Other people rose to that expectation. Everybody else rose to the standard. And like when you live your own advice and you live your example. People, just people gravitate toward that. That's actually what they want. Back to the book, pat Summit's, coaching philosophy centered on two things, defense and rebounding. The only two things that you can control no matter what, I stopped right there. The only two things that you can control in life are rebounding and defense. That's not sports advice, that's life advice. So let me unpack that quickly. First thing is, the first thing you can con control is defense. And here's the way I see it. The better you play defense, the better you're able to play offense, but you play offense in the right way. You play offense. With a defensive mindset. See, when you have no defense, think about this. When you have no defense, you're always playing from behind. You're always scrambling. You're desperate. People sense that people can feel that. People can actually see that because it's like you're a hamre on the wheel. You're always trying to catch up. It's, I mean, literally like you hit the ground running, but that's what happens. When you don't put yourself in position to win, see, without a defense, you end up making these wild, erratic decisions and actions just to like, you have this lottery mindset, like you're just trying to knock it outta the park and one swing. And the deceptive thing about it is sometimes you're successful at doing that and you actually pull ahead, but it's very short-lived. Because you get comfortable. You think you got it. You think you figured it out because you have no defense. The defense is the foundation. The defense is the fundamental. The defense is the process. That's what defense is. Defense is a positioning, it's a discipline. It's what you stick to. When things are going your way. See, people always talk about like, have an offensive mindset, but I believe, man, that can be very, very misleading because to have a real offensive mindset, you actually have to have a defensive mindset in action. Think about that. See the better you position yourself defensively. The more the offense can just run. You don't force it. You just allow it. You just roll with it. Defense puts you in position to score when opportunities come. And so with a defensive mindset, this is where you develop patience. This is the only way you develop faith. So you gotta have patience that even when it looks like there, there, there, there, even when it looks like, like you're not gonna score even when it looks like there's no opportunities coming your way. Even when it looks like it's all hopeless, be patient. This is where the fundamentals come in. This is where the process comes in. This is where learning how to think comes in. That's important. 99% of people in life. Are running around with a what to think mentality. They're just waiting to be told what to do. They're just doing the same thing over and over again. Yet they want different results. They're not gonna get it. You won't get it until you learn how to think. That's that defensive mindset, because there are gonna be days, bro, where it looks like you're losing. It is, but it's very deceptive. You won't lose forever. You can't win forever. You won't lose forever. If you're defensive solid, the opportunities are gonna come and sometimes the opportunities are gonna come directly. Because you're playing defense. Other times your opportunities are gonna come simply because you were at the right place at the right time. And a lot of times, man, that's what people call luck. That's not what luck is. Luck is a positioning so that when things turn your way, that's where faith comes in. That's where patience comes in when luck comes your way. You know what to do with it. See, a lot of times people finally get an opportunity. They didn't even, they didn't even have an awareness. They figured some sort of way to position themselves for an opportunity to come. And when that opportunity comes, they have no clue what to do with it because they were so busy spending their emotional currency talking about how bad things were. How unfavorable things are that when they got the opportunity, because they didn't have a, a, a defensive mindset. You're like, man, if I, if I got this opportunity, okay, boom, here's the opportunity. Life will sometimes do that. It will hand you the opportunity and be like, here you go. And you're like, oh, I don't know what to do. Because with a defensive mindset, it's fundamentals. You learn the fundamentals, you figure out your own fun fundamentals. You develop a process. You figure out how to think, you dig down deep, there's nobody there to help you. You're one-on-one. You get your ass slapped around a little bit. Alright, I'll be back. I'll be back. That's what most people do. Most people are waiting to be told what to think. Defense forces you how to think for yourself. Like when you lack the resources, will you become resourceful with a defensive mindset? You will. You do. You get creative when you're out skilled, when you're outmanned, when you're out resourced, when you don't have everything that you need that everybody else does with a defensive mindset. You're curious, you're creative. And your lack is actually your leverage. It's things that are right there in plain sight, and you seize those things because bro, you had nothing else. But one thing you weren't gonna do is stand there and get run over. That's defense. And then you got rebounding. The second thing that you have control over, not every shot is gonna go in. That's life. It is not. So with a defensive mindset, you're working yourself in position to stay close to the action. You don't go hide from it. You don't go self-medicate from it. You don't go commiserate from it about it. You stay engaged. You keep defending your position, and you keep working yourself in position. Because there is going to be a miss from the other side. There is, and when it does, you gotta learn how to rebound. And sometimes man, that rebound puts you back in the game and sometimes you get that rebound and you lose it again. Can you rebound and recover quickly? Most people can't. Most people splatter. Very few bounds with a defensive mindset and you're learning how to think and it's about the fundamentals and the process, and you're only controlling the two things you have control over. Isn't that freeing to know? There's only two things I gotta think about today. Defense and rebounding, and with a defensive mindset and that faith and that patience. I can rebound from the setbacks. I can rebound from the missed opportunities. I can rebound from others', missed opportunities, and I can rebound from the effort, even though it hadn't been, it's not, it's not showing yet. Just because change you don't see change doesn't mean change isn't happening. You gotta keep working yourself in position. You gotta have faith that, okay, I don't see the results yet, but those things are getting stored up. And so maybe I'm, I'm building this foundation defensively, so when it's my opportunity to score, I'm ready. I know what to do with it. Defense armors your mind. It strengthens. Who you are as a person, as you get banged up, life is gonna bang you around. It is, but having that defensive mindset at all times, defense is a part of offense. So having an offensive mindset is actually having a defensive mindset and capitalizing when it's your time to run and you just go with it. Defense and that's what you want, man. A defensive mindset at all times. And I'm not saying that everybody's out to get you. I'm saying defense is in, you're constantly working for position. What are you doing right now to work yourself in position? How are you putting yourself in position? That's two things you have control over. Where's the rebound coming from? Who's taking the shot? Will I be there? That's why I say defense strengthens that mindset. It strengthens your body. You know how to go. It builds that endurance. You don't know how to, you know how to go harder and longer. You have that perseverance. You have that resilience that only people, uh, people from the outside and bro, they envy you. You're like, I, I don't understand. How does he keep coming back focusing on the two things I have control over defense and rebounding. This way. You never drop your guard, you never get complacent. You never ever stop working for position. So that's, that's the two things I'm focused on today. This is why I bring you these messages. They're not for you, they're for me. Two things I'm thinking about today. The two things I can control, rebounding, and defense. That's it. The better I do with those. The more I'm in position to actually win. All right. Hope you guys have an amazing day. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.